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| - Well, here's the thing: this is still my favorite place to hike in all of Phoenix. I wake up thinking about it sometimes, like a lover calling me back! (too much?)
But I do. And I go.
I used to live nearby and I would walk the whole stretch of desert (trail 100) along Thunderbird, take the underground passage and walk more desert just to access the trailhead here.
When parking: I've done the lot off 7th Street, where the "North Mountain Visitor Center" is or the smaller lot just off Tbird at Aster/Central. I MUCH prefer parking at the Visitor Center lot since it gives you a nice stretch of desert to walk (warm-up) prior to gaining elevation. My preferred route is to head northwest from that parking lot along trail 100 (orange on the photo), then you pick up that unmarked line continuing northwest (on map shown) until you connect to the yellow Shaw Butte trailhead. It's up and up from there. It winds a little. A little steep but then levels out pretty nicely while still gaining elevation.
This is a considerably easier hike and generally much less crowded than either Squaw Peak or Camelback but of course, keep that adequate hydration and nutrition handy. Very few shady spots on this one.
At the top, there's a mess of antennas and such but I'll never forget on one of my first hikes here, a man launching a hang-glider off the back side (up by antennas and pointed out toward White Tanks.) I believe they still do these launches, but much less common than in the past. It was a cool site to see. Speaking of launches...flew over my mountain bike handlebars! Stupid! Not on the trail, but back at the parking lot - new placement of one of those concrete parking stops - took me down. We laughed. Thankfully!
We used to also do a terrific calf work-out on the back stretch of road up near the top (paved and steep!) And this, sad but true..haven't seen "the lone burro" in a very long time. I did say "hello and adios" to him last time - some ten years back. I had a feeling. I would love to see a burro again around here, but those days may be gone.
I've only done the full loop a couple times, I found it somewhat slow "around the back" so I always just descend by retracing my steps.
As always, free access, free parking! Thanks, Phoenix!
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